This was such a charming romance--I fell hard for both the protagonist and love interest, and the voice was funny and sharp throughout. A really propulsive, immersive read!

As the title suggests, Ben Phillipe's second YA novel is completely charming...and thoughtful, and at times maddening. The novel's protagonist, high-school senior Henri Haltiwanger, is navigating his last year at tony Manhattan private school FATE Academy, where he is both super-popular and absolutely unknown by his classmates. Henri uses his smarts and his charm to hide the fact that he's poor--the son of Haitian immigrants, he's only at FATE because he's on scholarship. But his father, who works as the super of their apartment building on the upper West Side, is determined that Henri will leverage his academic and extracurricular success into a spot at Columbia University.

Phillipe does a great job with dialogue, and really brings his cast of characters to life with individual and quirky voices. Most notable in this way is Corinne Troy, the "intense" school nerd who also happens to live in Henri's building. Corinne starts out just as annoying as Henri perceives her to be, but as she grows on Henri, she also grows on the reader.

Henri, too, is presented as a mutidimensional character. He's sharp and funny, but can also be maddeningly oblivious and self-centered. This isn't a flaw--it's an example of Phillipe's spot-on portrayal of adolescence. Henri is so obsessed about getting into Columbia that he loses sight of pretty much everything else in his life; he hurts people along the way, and there are real and realistic consequences for his actions.

Not every high-school junior or senior is going to relate to Henri and his classmates' single-mindedness about where they're going to get accepted to college. If I had a critique of the book, that would be it; in the privileged world of FATE Academy, it's all dream schools (mostly Ivy League) and early acceptances--not much to relate to here for readers whose only option may be the local community college.

But especially in these post-college-admissions-scandal times, _Charming As a Verb_ is a reminder that a) getting into a top school often has little to do with merit; and b) the school you think of as your "dream school" may not actually be the best place for you. And that's a dose of reality that I know I'd have appreciated when *I* was in high school, even if I might not have wanted to hear it.

Philippe brings it with another hilarious, insightful, courageous book about a kid coming face to face with his own limitations and learning how to question what he's long believed to be true. He remains one of the funniest, most sneaky-wise YA writers of right now.

Henri is a very charming Haitian American kid going to a fancy private high school and using all his charm to get him through things like debate practice and his job as a dog walker. There are so many funny details in his life, including the cast of characters at the high school which manages to be funny and real at the same time. His budding relationship is great to read and you’ll root for him the whole time.

There are some epic screw ups with real consequences but fortunately also some forgiveness on the part of adults. It’s a really enjoyable read with a very satisfying ending that doesn’t feel too unbelievable.

This was charming indeed. I really liked the main character of this story! The writing made him stand out and I could instantly get an idea of who is was which made me more invested in his story. I am giving this book a 3 star. It was entertaining, realistic and funny. If I was the target audience (a teen) it would have been 5 stars.

Though this story provides a somewhat realistic look at the pressures of getting in to your "dream" college, it is mostly a coming-of-age story that includes a potentially life-altering decision. Henri and Corinne are the type of characters that you would like to meet and maybe even hang out with. You probably have met them in the halls of your high school, or at a weekend party. You might not think they belong together, but it turns out they do. There is definitely no single story in this #ownvoices comedy and almost-tragedy.

I love this book,
Corinne and Halti are really my favorite couple. I got mad a H at some point but he is really good kid.
This book is excellent if you are transitioning into college because of how halti described his emotions. All the conflict i think it was describe really well and love the representation.
Haltis parents are really real and you could feel how real they were. I love that Halti was with the dogs, is one of favorites things on the book.
Halti and Corinne relationship development it was a little bit rush but you could feel it was real. I’m so excited for people to read this book.

Henri is the first-generation son of immigrants, living in New York City and attending a prestigious high school where he is on the debate team. He secretly runs a dog walking business for particular (i.e. fussy) clients. He dreams of attending nearby Columbia University.

His mom is working to attain her dream of becoming a firefighter and his dad is the superintendent of the building where they live. Henri is hired by the mother of one of his classmates and building-dwellers to walk her new puppy, much to their mutual dismay. As they get to know one another better, things they are both hiding come out and Henri's hopes and dreams may be spoiled--or maybe, just maybe, he'll realize that not everything can be decided for you, from your childhood

Charming as a Verb is a cute story of how two high school seniors, Henri Haltiwanger and Corinne Troy, go from acquaintances to friends to maybe something more, all because of a little blackmail. Halti is a professional dog-walker in NYC, and has solidified his position as the best in the neighborhood by creating a fake website that makes it look as if he is part of a much larger and prominent operation. When his neighbor, Corinne, commissions him to walk her new puppy, she quickly realizes his scam and uses that information to blackmail him into helping her become less "intense" so her personality is more appealing for her college interviews and recommendation letters. As Halti begins coaching "Cori", he realizes that he actually enjoys her company. Cori succeeds in becoming more likeable, but Halti struggles to impress the interviewer at his dream college, Columbia. As a first generation American citizen, it is his father's dream (and in turn his own) to attend. Halti realizes that Cori's mom is a dean at Columbia, and he knows that a good word from her could be the tipping point that helps him get accepted. Halti makes a choice that could change his life forever, but at what cost?

This is the 2nd Ben Philippe book I've read, the first being "The Field Guide to the North American Teenager". I really loved his first book, and I was hoping to see some of his personality and style show in this book as well. I enjoyed Charming as a Verb, but it didn't quite have the same spark as Field Guide. Philippe is great at letting you get to know his characters and what makes them tick, and this book is no exception. You really do understand Halti, and you are definitely charmed by him. Corinne could be fleshed out a bit more, but overall the character building is good. I wasn't wowed by the plot, but I think that it has a broad appeal and I know a lot of teens that will like it.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of Netgalley, in return for my unbiased and honest opinions.

Ever felt pressure to achieve at something so much that it's to the point of having panic attacks, stress sweats, insomnia and so much anxiety you feel as if you may explode? This novel contains that level of pressure and causes that level of anxiety in the reader as they scream at the screen (kindle version) for the protagonist: "Don't do it!" I think this novel is 100% relatable to any high school senior who is under pressure to apply and/or be accepted to college. The pressure can be external (family/friends) or internal (yourself). This novel emcompasses both that internal and external pressure into two characters: Corinne and Henri.

Both are students at a ritzy and uber competitive private school ironically named FATE. Corinne is the archetype for overachiever academic and social pariah who comes from money and a divorced household. Henri is the charming, outgoing, popular kid who scrambles to make ends meet by starting his own (abate a little underhanded) dog walking business. Of course, they are FATE(d) to be brought together and a friendship is grown. The last 50 pages of this novel had my stomach in knots and I found myself yelling at the characters. Word of advise: don't skip out on the epilogue: it's sickening awesome.

It's rather great timing that I was reading this novel since I had just told my senior class that my dream job would be a professional dog walker. Of course, I gushed about it in class. It's also perfect timing to recommend to all my seniors as a distraction as they anxiously await their college applications to be processed and to find out if they've been accepted, rejected or waitlisted.

I loved Henri.

I loved Corrine.

I love that their relationship brought out the best in the other.

However, Henri was unbelievably stupid. What he did was predictable and the consequences foreseeable. It was the one thing that kept me from giving the book 5 stars.

Five solid stars-- Charming as a Verb is itself... CHARMING! I adored the main character, Haiti, from the first few pages and found myself smiling throughout the book. Fun, cute and easily binge-able. This is for sure a feel-good YA novel, but it also doesn't shy away from the struggles of first-generation Americans, as well as systemic racism and classism. I am so glad glad that Ben Philippe is writing books for teens.

Charming as a Verb is all around Charming from the moment we meet Henri to the tropes that this book perfectly ensures.

Enemies to loves
Friends to lovers
Exs to lovers

And all the tropes in-between

The exploration of Henri’s feelings from the masculine perspective are definitely an underrepresented perspective in romance novels but this book definitely progresses us towards a world where Black boys hopefully will feel the freedom to live in their feelings and express them.

Corinne is probably still my favorite character though and the representation of a dark-skinned Black girl is a delight to see. She’s honest, quirky, and unique.

This book really encapsulates love, family, friendship, and what it means to be a child trying to rise to the standards your parents set. So many angles to explore this book again and again.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. The story, the setting, the characters. I loved the issues tackled and the way they were handled. This belongs in every library.

I was provided this as a galley copy by the publisher. Didn’t affect my review.

I was excited to read this after a favorite book blogger recommended it, and it didn’t let me down. I loved the premise, I liked the high school romance, and I liked the writing. I found the feelings described to be the perfect level of intensity (intentional, there...) for a high school romance book. Adorable, fun characters, interesting and layered plot line.

Some people are born lucky, with great wealth, healthy and loving family, fine physiques, and bubbly personalities. Meanwhile, most of us are lucky to get a portion of this spread to use to our advantage. Henri Haltiwanger, the main character of Ben Phillippe’s alluring young adult novel Charming is a Verb, realizes and has been using the latter two of his luck list to his advantage since his acceptance into the prestigious, and fictitious, Fine Arts Technical Education Academy in New York City. It’s through the unspooling of Henri’s final semester in high school that he learns how the entirety of the aforementioned list has shaped his worldview — for good and bad.

Henri Haltiwanger is, for all intents and purposes, a typical first generation Haitian-American New York teenager. He takes his parents’ push for academic greatness at a highly competitive high school seriously and maintains good grades. He uses his good looks and charm to make all the right social moves, even joining the school’s debate team as required and performing well under pressure. He so values the weight of an earned dollar that he’s set up a website where he’s the exclusive dog walker for a booming business because it lends him an air of legitimacy after failing to earn customers when posting on Craigslist. Not all business and grades, Henri makes his love of sneakers an art — taking creative photos and prints of designs and using them as bedroom decor. He even connects to his closest friend, Ming, through their shared love of the sneaker hunt which takes them on adventures throughout NYC. If you ask Henri, his main issue is the uncertainty surrounding college acceptance. For as long as he can remember, it’s always been his father’s dream that Henri attend Columbia University. The family once held fond memories of visiting the campus and Henri found himself sharing his father’s dream along his schooling experience.

Just when Henri thinks he’s juggling his final semester with as much grace as an hyper-stressed 17-year-old can manage, along comes a complication. Her name: Corinne Troy. The complication? She’s figured out his facade of a business and blackmails him into helping her build the social points she direly needs in order to obtain the recommendation letter she needs to get into Princeton University. To my intense relief, this is a one-time transaction that lends this story a more original turn than the retelling of a She’s All That-esq storyline — which the author gives us a nod to within the story. What comes next is a refreshing tale of what it means to be in a transitional stage of life, fully aware of the fleeting time still available in life as is and how little time there is for you to live within the future — with the added bonus of a cute romance and adorable doggos.

For Henri, this means examining what it is he wants in life and how he plans to get it. This is easier said than done as his pride often gets in the way — especially after some of his greatest fears are realized in the assessments that some very important people make of his character. In the end, we see how attending an academically rigorous and competitive school primarily attended by wealthy New Yorkers has given Henri a hyper-consciousness of his shortcomings in light of his uber privileged peers and how this hyper-consciousness causes him to move. Does he make poor decisions? Sure, who among us hasn’t? If anything this is a book that shows us the temporary setbacks of mistakes along as their crucial consequences. It’s a book for fevered overachievers, forever failures, and everyone in-between. I definitely recommend this as a must-read for anyone seeking a better understanding of what the pressures of high school can do to the psyche to even the most well-meaning of us — kid (explicit language warning withstanding) and parent alike.

5 Quotes of Note from Charming as a Verb

It’s kind of cool how so many people in the city have a single, soul-consuming passion that very often looks nothing like the rest of their lives.
All seniors…dealing with the looming trauma of graduation. There’s something new ahead, of course, but life as we know it is in countdown mode.
Either you’re exceptional or a nobody. No permission to be anything in between. It’s BS.
There’s no grand tour; make yourself at home. Go have a poo or something.
All children are charming as an adjective, but you’re charming as a verb.

First generation Haitian American Henri Hathiwanger knows what to say and do to please people and make his way in the world: he has his own dogwalking business, he’s a popular student at his tony independent school, and he’s planning to get into Columbia to fulfill his and his father’s dream. But underneath his superficial ease in the world he’s too embarrassed to let even his best friend see his family’s small, rundown apartment that comes with his father’s janitor job and he worries his grades may not be good enough.

Henri’s charm is something of a facade and a con and it all starts to crumble when Corinne, a Black classmate who lives in the same building and is supersmart but with endearingly poor social skills, blackmails him into helping her become popular.

The author does an excellent job of showing teens on the cusp of adulthood, still trying on personas and there’s some sharp commentary on race, class, and issues of integrity (though I believe the author lets the characters off the hook a bit here).

The novel is a charming romance between two appealingly likable but very different teens but is also a story of a first generation immigrant striving for a dream that may not really be his.

Philippe does not disappoint. He creates characters that are so dynamic, but destined to fall from grace. Henri Haltiwanger is no different. I just want to say I did NOT see the downfall being the worst that it was, but dang does it all get tied up in a neat little package. Great novel, perfect pacing, and a storyline that makes you fall in love with Halti despite his shortcomings.

This is a super cute rom-com featuring two black characters and it involves one protagonist blackmailing the other. If you’re into enemies to lovers you’ll adore this one!

Henri is a high school senior who's working his way as hard as he can toward Columbia. He always makes the Honor List, he's on the debate team, he's popular with his classmates, and in his limited free time he even holds down a job as a dog-walker for a neighborhood company. And if he also happens to be conning his neighbors because there <i>is</i> no dog-walking company and he's just trying to attract more clients and more money... well, he's still working really hard and the neighbors and their dogs are happy, so there's no real problem right? There is when super-student Corinne becomes his newest client and finds out Henri's scheme, and decides to use it to blackmail him into helping her with her social image.

From the beginning, Henri and Corinne have a great dynamic. Henri, for all his clever schemes and charisma, is really foolish about many things, and Corinne is not putting up with it. Her intelligence, lack of social graces, and "intensity" put her in a great position to call Henri on his nonsense, which he needs. He has become so focused on getting to his goals and using his talents to do so no matter what that he is deluding himself into thinking that he only has one path ahead of him.

While Corinne is right (and fantastic) in challenging him, Henri is under a lot of pressure as both a "scholarship student" and the child of immigrants. I think many teens and young adults can relate to that idea of wanting to make their families proud and fulfill both their own dreams and that of their parents. Henri makes several good points about his challenges versus those of some of the wealthier students during the course of the book. While the story realistically doesn't try to solve those challenges, I appreciate the acknowledgement of them.

Overall, I found Henri, Corinne, and this entire book a delight.